On the Effect of Prevalent Carbazole Homocoupling Defects on the Photovoltaic Performance of PCDTBT:PC17_{17}BM Solar Cells

The photophysical properties and solar cell performance of the classical donor–acceptor copolymer PCDTBT (poly($\textit{N}$-9′-heptadecanyl-2,7-carbazole-$\textit{alt}$ -5,5-(4′,7′-di-2-thienyl-2′,1′,3′-benzothiadiazole))) in relation to unintentionally formed main chain defects are investigated. Carbazole–carbazole homocouplings (Cbz hc) are found to significant extent in PCDTBT made with a variety of Suzuki polycondensation conditions. Cbz hc vary between 0 and 8 mol% depending on the synthetic protocol used, and are quantified by detailed nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy including model compounds, which allows to establish a calibration curve from optical spectroscopy. The results are corroborated by extended time-dependent density functional theory investigations on the structural, electronic, and optical properties of regularly alternating and homocoupled chains. The photovoltaic properties of PCDTBT:fullerene blend solar cells significantly depend on the Cbz hc content for constant molecular weight, whereby an increasing amount of Cbz hc leads to strongly decreased short circuit currents J$_{sc}$. With increasing Cbz hc content, J$_{sc}$decreases more strongly than the intensity of the low energy absorption band, suggesting that small losses in absorption cannot explain the decrease in J$_{sc}$ alone, rather than combined effects of a more localized LUMO level on the TBT unit and lower hole mobilities found in highly defective samples. Homocoupling-free PCDTBT with optimized molecular weight yields the highest efficiency up to 7.2% without extensive optimization.F.L., M.S., and R.F. gratefully acknowledge the EPSRC for funding. M.S. thanks the University of Freiburg (Innovationsfond Forschung) and the DFG for funding (SPP 1355). D.F. acknowledges the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for a postdoctoral research fellowship. A.D.Z.M. and C.M. thank the Swedish Research Council for funding

Pain, psychological distress and health-related quality of life at baseline and 3 months after radical prostatectomy

BACKGROUND: Inadequate management of postoperative pain is common, and postoperative pain is a risk factor for prolonged pain. In addition to medical and technical factors, psychological factors may also influence the experience of postoperative pain. METHODS: Pain was measured postoperatively at 24, 48, and 72 hr in hospital and after 3 months at home in 140 patients undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). Patients answered questionnaires about anxiety and depression (HAD scale) and health-related quality of life (SF-36) at baseline and 3 months after surgery. RESULTS: In the first 3 postoperative days, mild pain was reported by 45 patients (32%), moderate pain by 64 (45%), and severe pain by 31 (22%) on one or more days. High postoperative pain scores were correlated with length of hospital stay and with high pain scores at home. Forty patients (29%) reported moderate (n = 35) or severe (n = 5) pain after discharge from hospital. Patients who experienced anxiety and depression preoperatively had higher postoperative pain scores and remained anxious and depressed 3 months after surgery. The scores for the physical domains in the SF-36 were decreased, while the mental health scores were increased at 3 months. Anxiety and depression were negatively correlated with all domains of the SF-36. CONCLUSION: There is a need for nurses to be aware of the psychological status of RP patients and its impact upon patients' experience of postoperative pain and recovery. The ability to identify patients with psychological distress and to target interventions is an important goal for future research

Overview of the ID, EPI and REL tasks of BioNLP Shared Task 2011

We present the preparation, resources, results and analysis of three tasks of the BioNLP Shared Task 2011: the main tasks on Infectious Diseases (ID) and Epigenetics and Post-translational Modifications (EPI), and the supporting task on Entity Relations (REL). The two main tasks represent extensions of the event extraction model introduced in the BioNLP Shared Task 2009 (ST'09) to two new areas of biomedical scientific literature, each motivated by the needs of specific biocuration tasks. The ID task concerns the molecular mechanisms of infection, virulence and resistance, focusing in particular on the functions of a class of signaling systems that are ubiquitous in bacteria. The EPI task is dedicated to the extraction of statements regarding chemical modifications of DNA and proteins, with particular emphasis on changes relating to the epigenetic control of gene expression. By contrast to these two application-oriented main tasks, the REL task seeks to support extraction in general by separating challenges relating to part-of relations into a subproblem that can be addressed by independent systems. Seven groups participated in each of the two main tasks and four groups in the supporting task. The participating systems indicated advances in the capability of event extraction methods and demonstrated generalization in many aspects: from abstracts to full texts, from previously considered subdomains to new ones, and from the ST'09 extraction targets to other entities and events. The highest performance achieved in the supporting task REL, 58% F-score, is broadly comparable with levels reported for other relation extraction tasks. For the ID task, the highest-performing system achieved 56% F-score, comparable to the state-of-the-art performance at the established ST'09 task. In the EPI task, the best result was 53% F-score for the full set of extraction targets and 69% F-score for a reduced set of core extraction targets, approaching a level of performance sufficient for user-facing applications. In this study, we extend on previously reported results and perform further analyses of the outputs of the participating systems. We place specific emphasis on aspects of system performance relating to real-world applicability, considering alternate evaluation metrics and performing additional manual analysis of system outputs. We further demonstrate that the strengths of extraction systems can be combined to improve on the performance achieved by any system in isolation. The manually annotated corpora, supporting resources, and evaluation tools for all tasks are available from http://www.bionlp-st.org and the tasks continue as open challenges for all interested parties

Moesin, ezrin, and p205 are actin-binding proteins associated with neutrophil plasma membranes.

Actin-binding proteins in bovine neutrophil plasma membranes were identified using blot overlays with 125I-labeled F-actin. Along with surface-biotinylated proteins, membranes were enriched in major actin-binding polypeptides of 78, 81, and 205 kDa. Binding was specific for F-actin because G-actin did not bind. Further, unlabeled F-actin blocked the binding of 125I-labeled F-actin whereas other acidic biopolymers were relatively ineffective. Binding also was specifically inhibited by myosin subfragment 1, but not by CapZ or plasma gelsolin, suggesting that the membrane proteins, like myosin, bind along the sides of the actin filaments. The 78- and 81-kDa polypeptides were identified as moesin and ezrin, respectively, by co-migration on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and immunoprecipitation with antibodies specific for moesin and ezrin. Although not present in detectable amounts in bovine neutrophils, radixin (a third and closely related member of this gene family) also bound 125I-labeled F-actin on blot overlays. Experiments with full-length and truncated bacterial fusion proteins localized the actin-binding site in moesin to the extreme carboxy terminus, a highly conserved sequence. Immunofluorescence micrographs of permeabilized cells and cell "footprints" showed moesin co-localization with actin at the cytoplasmic surface of the plasma membrane, consistent with a role as a membrane-actin-linking protein

wALADin benzimidazoles differentially modulate the function of porphobilinogen synthase orthologs

The heme biosynthesis enzyme porphobilinogen synthase (PBGS) is a potential drug target in several human pathogens. wALADin1 benzimidazoles have emerged as species-selective PBGS inhibitors against Wolbachia endobacteria of filarial worms. In the present study, we have systematically tested wALADins against PBGS orthologs from bacteria, protozoa, metazoa, and plants to elucidate the inhibitory spectrum. However, the effect of wALADin1 on different PBGS orthologs was not limited to inhibition: several orthologs were stimulated by wALADin1; others remained unaffected. We demonstrate that wALADins allosterically modulate the PBGS homooligomeric equilibrium with inhibition mediated by favoring low-activity oligomers, while 5-aminolevulinic acid, Mg(2+), or K(+) stabilized high-activity oligomers. Pseudomonas aeruginosa PBGS could be inhibited or stimulated by wALADin1 depending on these factors and pH. We have defined the wALADin chemotypes responsible for either inhibition or stimulation, facilitating the design of tailored PBGS modulators for potential application as antimicrobial agents, herbicides, or drugs for porphyric disorders

UP IN STEM, DOWN IN BUSINESS: CHANGING COLLEGE MAJOR DECISIONS WITH THE GREAT RECESSION

We use the American Community Survey (ACS) to investigate the extent to which college major decisions were affected during and after the Great Recession with special attention to business and STEM fields, as well as the heterogeneity across demographic groups. Several conclusions are reached. First, the Great Recession increased the frequency of STEM majors but decreased the frequency of business majors. Second, the increase for STEM fields spreads across several detailed STEM majors, while the decrease in business majors is especially concentrated among finance and management. Third, we find strong heterogeneous effects of the Great Recession by gender and race/ethnicity.JEL classification: I20, J24This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Liu, Shimeng, Weizeng Sun, and John V. Winters. "Up in STEM, down in business: changing college major decisions with the great recession." Contemporary Economic Policy 37, no. 3 (2019): 476-491, which has been published in final form at doi:10.1111/coep.12396. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited

Cloning, characterization, and chromosomal localization of human superillin (SVIL)

Supervillin is a 205-kDa F-actin binding protein originally isolated from bovine neutrophils. This protein is tightly associated with both actin filaments and plasma membranes, suggesting that it forms a high-affinity link between the actin cytoskeleton and the membrane. Human supervillin cDNAs cloned from normal human kidney and from the cervical carcinoma HeLa S3 predict a bipartite structure with three potential nuclear localization signals in the NH2-terminus and three potential actin-binding sequences in the COOH-terminus. In fact, throughout its length, the COOH-terminal half of supervillin is similar to segments 2-6 plus the COOH-terminal headpiece of villin, an actin-binding protein in intestinal microvilli. A comparison of the bovine and human sequences indicates that supervillin is highly conserved at the amino acid level, with 79.2% identity of the NH2-terminus and conservation of three of the four nuclear localization signals found in bovine supervillin. The COOH-terminus is even more conserved, with 95.1% amino acid identity overall and 100% conservation of the villin-like headpiece. Supervillin mRNAs are expressed in all human tissue tested, bu are most abundant in muscle, bone marrow, thyroid gland, and salivary gland; comparatively little message is found in brain. Human supervillin mRNA is approximately 7.5 kb; this message is especially abundant in HeLa S3 cervical carcinoma, SW480 adenocarcinoma, and A549 lung carcinoma cell lines. The human supervillin gene (SVIL) is localized to a single chromosomal locus at 10p11.2, a region that is deleted in some prostate tumors